End users may search for many things in the Internet domain, and there are currently several search solutions, such as Google™, to facilitate the search process.
Currently to perform a search from a mobile device, such as a cellular telephone, the user employs a browser function, irrespective of what type of content the user is trying to search. In general, a mobile browser may be considered to be an application in a mobile device whose main function is to show content on a display and, based on a request generated by user interaction with the displayed content or programmed features of the content itself, fetch new content from a location specified by the request (see, for example, “MITA-Mobile Internet Technical Architecture, Visions and Implementations”, Volume 3, pages 75-76, Nokia, IT Press, 2002, ISBN 951-826-670-0).
One mobile device browser, the Series 60™ browser available from the assignee of this patent application, permits the user to access search provider sites via the Internet. A separate application may be provided, a “contacts” application, to search for contact information within the device.
As should be apparent, a problem arises in that there are typically a plurality of different applications on a mobile device, and the different applications may have different search needs and may also support different data types. It should thus be appreciated that executing all application searches from a browser function is not an optimum solution. That is, a browser may not be an optimum search tool for all of the possible applications that may wish to perform searching for information and content.